LCD Virgin

Guest

Hey guys,
I have been looking around this board for the past you days, you seem like a nice lot! I was wondering if you could help me with a hard choice I have to make about a new LCD TV. I have an absolute maximum of £1000. I was looking at a screen around 26 inch. At first I was looking at the Samsung LW26A33WX/XEU which is £999 at comet. It looks really nice, but I haven't read any reviews of it! Does anyone have one, or have any experiences of one?
Also does anyone know if this TV would be "HDTV Ready"? For connections it has:
Digital Interface (DVI-HDCP)
Scart Jack - 2EA
PC Input - D-Sub
PC Audio

I am also thinking of getting the JVC THSW-8 Home Cinema System with it, which has progressive scan, would the TV be able to benefit from this?

I am really sorry for all my stupid questions, as I said I am new to this!
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

Standard Member

I don't have much experience with Samsung LCD's, they do make Sony's panels (but that doesn't mean much, Panasonic make their own and they're certainly not the best, it's all about the electronics behind the panels really).

I'd expect to have more connections than those stated. Technically it'll work with Sky's HDTV, but you need component video inputs to be totally High Definition.

Unless you've got a very high end DVD player/recorder, that connection isn't much use for the time being. But double checking the connections, there's two scarts. Doesn't mention if they're RGB/S-video or just standard, so I'd check that with Comet. They both should be RGB (it's clearer than standard, same with S-Video, but RGB's the better mode of the two).

What are you connecting to the TV (ie. your DVD/video, is it a scart connection)?

PC input's useful to give you an easy option to hook your PC up but it'll be up to you whether that's any use.

On the subject of the JVC THSW8, it'll connect with RGB or S-Video Scart. The component video connection is the one that runs on progressive. If the TV doesn't have that connection, then it won't run.

Most TV's run on 'interlace' and draw half the number of lines on one frame and the other half on another. Don't confuse with this with the flicker-free 100hz and flicker 50hz technologies, it's unrelated. 'Progressive' runs by drawing both lines at once, making the picture theoretically twice as detailed. Sometimes it looks better without, but more often than not it's easily the best setting. If you connect the THSW8 on component, it'll always be on that mode.

Mind you the German site was a bit weird, but it did have the fun title of "HDTV was ist das?". Oh and it also says that it has a "dissolution of 1280 x 768".

Anyway, that was a random stream of uselessness.
It seems that it is definitely HDTV compatable, despite Comet.

So the Samsung and the JVC has RGB, so I guess that is the best connection? and it will run progressive scan?
I think I will just be connecting the JVC and possibly my laptop (via normal VGA connection).

Contact, you seem to know your stuff, do you think that this will be money well spent? I don't want to waste over a £1000 and then regret it (I am a poor student!)

I am sorry this post is a bit confused! It is very late!
If anyone has any experiences of either the Samsung or the JVC, I would be really greatful if you would let me know you experiences!

Standard Member

Not sure what you are saying , if the set has DVI-HDCP then that is what you need for SKY HDTV. You will need a HDMI->DVI cable, but that is it!

Click to expand...

I mean from the point of view that to be HDTV Ready, you need a component input too.

iamhoey, it seems like there's a mixed message. So we'll assume the TV has:

One DVI HDCP socket (for Sky HDTV)
One RGB Scart
One Normal (maybe S-video?) Scart
One set of composite and S-video side connections
PC input

And apparently an Optical connection. From all that, I'd advise running the THSW8 with an RGB Scart connection into the TV. You can't use Progressive Scan there, but the image won't be dramatically different. It'll give a solid picture.

Honestly, you need to have a good look at this TV instore and running. Check out how it handles movement (for instance a DVD image, does the detail fade whenever things shift about and come back when it's paused?).

My personal feeling on LCD is, you either go for quality or don't buy one at all. A cheap LCD is still a lot more than a Cathode Ray Tube equivalent. Also, this is the time of a lot of range changes, so there's more bargains for the old and lots of interesting new stuff.

How much are they doing the THSW8? I thought it was down to £199 (deal price because it's the last range, though Comet seems to think most of JVC's now old range is yet to be released!). It's a good TV, but that wireless reciever seems more of a pain than just putting the wires round the room. Then again, I'm not sure the wired version's any cheaper, plus the omni directional speakers are good with the THSW8.

Standard Member

I've literally just bought the 32" version of the Samsung yesterday afternoon (after running around various Currys as no one had any in stock). It's not properly set up yet but overall I've been quite impressed with the picture quality. I'm using old scarts at the moment so they aren't exactly doing the TV any favours as well.

I can't comment on the connections but if the 26" does have component then it should look fine. I demo'd (briefly) the opening of Matrix Reloaded via component while I was in Currys and it looked really good.

The only flaws I've seen so far were during the Snooker, where it had a little trouble with smearing of colours. To be honest it isn't actually that bad but if you really want to be picky then you'll see it.

Member

What ever LCD you buy.You must make sure it's ready for hi-def that means it must have a resolution of 1280*720 anything less than that and it will not be hi-def.
You also want a DVI or HDMI connection as well as RGB scart and a set of component connection.A pc connection is good as well.I think Phillips pixel plus LCD are one of the best at the mo haven't seen any good rightups on it as yet so its worth looking into.

Standard Member

Well for the surround system and most of the other DVD players and Recorders, at the moment at least, component is the most common top-end connection. So while the DVI HDCP'll come into its own eventually, component is very welcome support. There's planning ahead, but it's also nice to be able to make use of the here and now.